News & Commentary

Indulgences

Lock Him Up

We’re going to make the mistake of deploying one anecdote across sixty million people, but hey, we’re grasping at straws at the moment.

The anecdote is courtesy of Rob Flaherty, formerly a digital-communications hack for the Hillary Clinton campaign. He’s originally from Massachusetts, and Wednesday evening he tweeted this:

Anecdote alert: Guy in a camo hat at my hometown bar talking about how he voted for Trump but is pissed about conflict of interest stuff.

We’re going to presume here that “conflict of interest” did not pass Camo Hat’s lips, since that’s Elite Talk. And we cannot know which bit or bits of news reached the space below said hat, since there are already so many to choose from.

Was it the foreign dignitaries being invited to stay at the fabulous Trump DC hotel while conducting business with Trump’s government? Was it a Trumpspawn sitting in on meetings with ambassadors between office hours running the Trump blind trust? Was it Trump happening to mention some needs at a foreign Trump property while talking to a representative of the foreign government? Was it Trump declaring that conflict-of-interest laws don’t apply to the President anyway, so fuck off?

Whatever it was, Camo Hat was left with the impression that his new President might be distracted in the course of making America great again.

Which is the first we’ve heard — in eighteen months —,of any Trump supporter taking pause at anything Trump has done.

And we’ve been hearing a lot about Trump supporters, thanks to national reporters parachuting into every holler they can find. For example, they’re simple people who like simple language, inherently distrusting people (like us!) who are prone to packing too many syllables into a word, or too many clauses into a sentence.

For these people, “Crooked Hillary” and “Lock Her Up!” cut to the chase, executive summaries they can rally behind. Also, “Drain the Swamp” as a metaphor for the slightly longer metaphor of running the crooks out of town. It’s not that they care about the forms and nuances of national-government corruption, but dammit they know what a hand in the cookie jar looks like.

And, let’s not forget, collectively they’re a mob. Angry Villagers, looking for a target, any target, to vent their resentment. These are not neocons and Randians using fancy rationalizations to disguise their greed and lust for power. They only want someone to tell them what they want to hear.

And as a mob, they can turn. Fast.

We had been figuring the trigger would be Medicare privatization, Paul Ryan’s dream to throw old people to the insurance-company wolves. “Government Hands Off My Medicare!” was the most telling sign of the Obamacare fight, after all, a government program so successful that nobody knows it’s a government program. Yes, Grandma would be able to keep her Medicare, but Dad’s not retired yet, and Trump would be gunning for his benefits.

But Trump loves to be loved. We don’t think he would have Paul Ryan’s P90X abs to stomach that one.

Short of that, maybe the very messy details of Obamacare repeal would cause a revolt among its supposed beneficiaries, but the very complications of anything other than single-payer make that doubtful, since you can tell any lie about it you’d like, and who’s to know better?

So how about incompetent toadies running Cabinet departments? Nah. The folks watching in horror as all that unfolds are the folks who voted for Hillary.

But maybe unrestrained avarice will do the trick.

Camo Hat surprises us. We thought Trump could say anything to these people, and they would buy it right out of the showroom, even if Trump said the opposite the day before. We also thought that avarice was not a disqualifying trait among Republicans, since we’ve been hearing for decades that poor people vote against their economic interests because they dream about being rich people.

And Jeezus Christ, we’re talking about Donald Fucking Trump here, the Man in the Gilded Penthouse. Filthy rich is his brand.

And yet, there’s that anecdote. Camo Hat, Voice of the People.

And yes, we’re grasping at straws, because we’re totally powerless to prevent the coming apocalypse.

But mobs turn, and craven Republicans aren’t afraid of Trump, they fear the angry crowds behind him. The merest shift in the wind, and we’re looking at a totally different political situation.

22 comments:

¡Andrew!

8:58 am • Friday • November 25, 2016

“The liberal backlash against Trump and the Republicans will be even bigger in 2018 and 2020,” said my doctor as he wrote my prescription for sedatives.

Based on what little we know of their plans, I can confidently predict that we’ll be in a massive fiscal and/or financial crisis within two years. Trump’s pledge to spend $1 trillion on infrastructure with absolutely no credible plan to pay for it is DOA. Congressional RepubliKKKans would have to do a reality-busting “we’ve always been at war with Eurasia/Eastasia” flipflop on deficit spending and the national debt.

Most likely we’ll get the worst of all the choices: Massive tax cuts for the rich combined with enormous increases in military spending which detonates a death spiral of recession caused by surging interest rates and stagflationary hell for everyday Americans. That’s when shiz is gonna get real.

Also, I saw a telling headline the other day: How long until the white working class realizes they were scammed?

The hubs and I are hopping on a train this morning for a weekend trip to Vansterdam, BC. Fortunately, we have reserved seats, as I’m expecting to see people clinging to the outside.

Hillary is now just 1.5 million votes behind Obama 2012, with Cali still being counted. The early line that Obama voters stayed home ain’t holding up. The backlash is already baked in.

Besides, liberals don’t backlash, they write angry letters. If Trump stiffs his own voters — in a manner they recognize — they’ll turn.

¡Andrew!

11:39 am • Friday • November 25, 2016

@nojo: We did turn the country around significantly in the 2006 and 2008 Blue Wave elections, so it seems reasonable to have hope that we can do it again.

Also, I’d love to think that the inevitable Trumpocalypse of chaos, corruption, and incompetence will discredit the RepubliKKKans forever, however our system of government seems to guarantee disaster every eight years no matter how deranged and destructive that they’ve become. They only have one setting, and it’s permanently stuck on Double Down.

SanFranLefty

1:04 am • Saturday • November 26, 2016

I was really hoping Fidel would make it to his 12th US of Merica president for the stand off. Dayum.

Pro tip to liberals: Don’t get so distracted by left over turkey and Fidel’s death that you ignore crazy ass appointments by Drumpf of the Chins this weekend.

¡Andrew!

2:21 pm • Tuesday • November 29, 2016

@SanFranLefty: I’ve reluctantly peeked at the news, and the common thread running among the Cabinet of Despicables is aggressive ignorance and hostility regarding the departments that they are tasked to lead, along with zero interest in the constituancies and stake holders that they will be expected to serve.

These are difficult jobs even for dedicated, intelligent people, with countless thankless tasks and long hours, so my guess is that half these incompetent sociopaths will be gone within a year.

nojo

2:56 pm • Tuesday • November 29, 2016

@¡Andrew!: By that measure, I’m starting to wonder how long it will take Trump to implode.

Reagan was a Great Delegator, and held his minions to short executive summaries. Reagan also had actual administrative background as California Guv.

Trump runs his businesses as a fiefdom, not a bureaucracy — it’s all about the Deal, not the follow-through. And, well, hotels and licensing are a much different racket than the guvmint.

He may yet find his Inner Reagan, and hand off the details to Pence, as rumored last summer. But I’ve yet to see anything but an old man spinning out of control.

DElurker

3:30 pm • Tuesday • November 29, 2016

@nojo: The appointments remind me of James Watt, along the line of what Andrew’s observation is. Pick someone who is the opposite of a champion for that role. It is more evidence, to me, that Pence is running the show, at least for the important stuff. Crap that the Koch brothers do not care about they let Trump loose on. I am sure it is done in a way that makes Trump feel he is making the decisions, but in REALITY, he is being let to them..

@nojo: I’m curious how the public is going to respond. His constant Twitter trolling, shameless lying, and mocking protesters is unprecedented, especially since he lost the popular vote by at least 2.2M ballots cast. People already are angry and afraid. It’s as if the election never ended, and now he’s running against us, the majority of Americans that didn’t vote for him.

@¡Andrew!: Trump’s also running against the people who did vote for him, once they find out what’s in the box.

¡Andrew!

4:13 pm • Tuesday • November 29, 2016

@nojo: He’s a racist bully who says what they think, and that seems to be all that they really care about.

That said, the people that voted for him will be absolutely eviscerated in the upcoming, buck wild kleptocracy, and they’ll be forced to watch as the Trumps go on living their vulgar, garish lifestyle, so at least some of their toxic karma will blow back.

mellbell

4:26 pm • Tuesday • November 29, 2016

@nojo: I heard an amazing Ollie North story over the weekend. Will post in the clubhouse when I get a chance.

water

5:09 pm • Tuesday • November 29, 2016

The eviscerated Trump supporters will be told it’s Obama’s fault, and they will believe it. Not that it matters, we’ll all be too pre-occupied with the massive recession and World War III to care.

DElurker

5:13 pm • Tuesday • November 29, 2016

@nojo: Ollie followed orders from someone else. He did it gleefully but not without orders. I believe that Flynn will follow orders that only he hears. Really scary.

@¡Andrew!: I heard an interview with Trevor Noah and he talked about his impression of Trump using the language of the common people and how it would appeal to a broad swath of the population. People would not feel as if they were being talked down to. It struck me as the same point that Doris Kearns Goodwin (and others) made about Lincoln’s popularity. His speeches were all made in the common language of the day. It may also say a lot about how the common language has deteriorated over the years.

Another take on language. If a candidate chooses to go with the vernacular of the masses, he needs the media to spread it far and wide. Whenever anyone else has talked this way the Press has ignored them. Not this time, in a very big way. I think this really swayed how people voted in the Red States.

mellbell

8:55 am • Friday • December 2, 2016

@nojo: Are you sure or are you prett-ay, prett-ay, prett-ay, pretty sure?